White collar workers are at war and they’re mad as hell. Ben was a software engineer living in Dallas, Texas. While his company was doing well, the board of directors thought it could do much better. His company wasn’t alone. So, what made these CEOs side with the competition? Ben never saw it coming, yet these legions of workers were equally equipped to fight the battle. The competition speaks English, is highly educated, has the technology to wage this war, and the government to support it. The first volley in outsourcing was fired and it put Americans on alert.
This competition comes from new, highly educated labor markets. Ben will likely lose his job for now, but not due to automation or labor union disputes. Something had created a vacuum in job security. Now, following the era of corporate downsizing comes the era of off shore job outsourcing.
Webster would be envious of all these linguistic tricks. Downsizing, as a word, didn’t exist 20 years ago in relation to labor. Trends in labor seem to invent their own vocabulary and solutions, once again with outsourcing. Whereas downsizing sought a long-term growth strategy, the outsourcing strategy seeks lower costs. According to Ben, outsourcing added the indignity of retraining his counterpart lest he forfeit his severance benefits. Is the maxim “what’s good for business is good for the country” still valid? As more workers become disenfranchised and angered by outsourcing, it may prove false.
Outsourcing to foreign countries could be the epitaph for corporate downsizing, if it proves reliable. Instead of doing more with less labor, companies can do more with cheaper labor. Because the focus for white collar labor is now shifting overseas, the U.S. government is positioning itself to rein in the powers of business labor practices. One example: according to the National Foundation for American Policy, 37 U.S. states are now considering legislation that would restrict contracts awarded to offshore businesses.i For Ben, it quells some tension and prides him to know “America is fighting back,” but will it get him a job?
Whereas immigration created the manpower to do jobs for lesser wages, outsourcing seeks the same result, proactively. Americans are loath to have huddled masses, the poor, or the uneducated, immigrating into our country. In the global economy, we see a shift of U.S.-based manufacturing to countries like Mexico, Korea, and China. It’s natural evolution for the production of high volume products to shift to developing nations. As Americans, we see this and expect it to happen. Sometimes, for a lark, we look for the “Made in China” label on our Wal-Mart products.
The economic base established by governments of developing nations enables their businesses to ascend to world competitor levels, such as India. But for outsourcing to deny our right to do the same exact job, at our pay scales, is what insults an American. U.S. businesses share a philosophy similar to Genghis Khan: it is not sufficient that we succeed (at manufacturing, software design, etc), all others must fail. Unfortunately, they excelled. Because of our hubris the market share of U.S. manufacturers declined. It declined because business leaders failed to see this economic ladder of ascendancy. The net effect is lesser job security for the American worker.
The preeminence of U.S. manufacturing for such a long period and its eventual decline created a huge proportion of blue collar jobs lost to downsizing and/or competition with foreign countries. The opposite of the spectrum is the outsourcing movement of white collar jobs. But, if downsizing affected manufacturing and job security so dramatically, why is the acid debate over such a small percentage of jobs lost to outsourcing? It arises from the common job losses these social and economic classes now share. The critical mixture of these two working classes and their diminished job security to foreign countries has finally bonded our mutual needs for job security, job satisfaction, and…more pay.
Ben has worked part-time before. He knows what it’s like to work without health insurance or medical benefits of any kind. Why, then, should a foreigner get his full-time job and take away his healthcare? After calling the credit card company to dispute his balance, he was reminded by the accented voice on the phone just how closely this whole affair is affecting his life. He can’t even name the president/prime minister/whatever, whose country “stole” his job, but he sure knows what they sound like.
Most troubling to Americans is partaking in a global society where everything seems to be a patchwork of products and services devoid of personality. Our feelings are an inseparable part of our work and our jobs. We’re also patriots. We would pause in disbelief to see a sticker assuring our purchase is “Proudly Made in China.” Such gusto is the norm for American workers who revel in seeing their patriotism (in sticker form) advertised, and with overwhelming pride. Outsourcing has the potential to alienate Americans like Ben, or worse, exorcise the soul of American labor.
Outsourcing provides the workers—the cheap labor—to create an output or something of value. It doesn’t matter who or what is within the outsourced unit of business, just so it provides the intended results. It’s a black box of labor. Without the hassle of unions, individual wants and needs, and immigration sponsorship, the same (or near-same) work is provided. There are serious questions about the black box model of labor management when used on a massive scale. We aren’t there yet, but surely as this trend continues the U.S. government and others will have to assess in what ways job security, worker health and welfare, and training are being curtailed by outsourcing.
But can a black box want for health care, life insurance, or retirement plan? A black box has no soul, no dignity, nor any loyalties. It simply performs. That, above pay or anything else, troubles the American. He wants to be an individual and feel his contribution, not be unitized.
Some Americans see their jobs going overseas as an act of piracy, abetted by trade agreements such as NAFTA. The trade agreements are merely an attempt at controlling an inevitable fact of life, which is the presence of foreign labor, trade, and competition.
The folly is that U.S. businesses have failed to maintain manufacturing supremacy and could not mitigate technology costs to maintain skilled white collar jobs. Those jobs are now being reshuffled between the U.S. working classes and foreign labor markets. Ben never suspected he would take work laying cable in the ground, nor did he suspect a wide swath of immigrants was not only capable of doing these jobs, but they were content to accept the low wages.
Unskilled workers coming into America, jobs going out, and a stagnant job market looked to Washington as if the country had raised a white flag. Fortunately for Ben, the USA Jobs Protection Act, in all its patriotism, says that no U.S. firm will hire a foreign counterpart when a U.S. worker can perform the same job. But pending legislation isn’t stopping the immigrants from coming in droves, nor from jobs going overseas. What, then, are they seeking if outsourcing has contributed to this situation?
For a fee, and no benefits, these individuals fill the gaps that full-timers and part-timers cannot (or will not). Downsizing made these individuals popular choices for employers seeking a lower-cost option for non-essential work. But who’ll represent these people and take the lead for some measure of job security? Unless we are all to be contracted, leased, or manipulated like a black box, there must be oversight and representation for our rights, our health, and our safety.
Americans feel that a right has been stripped when their means to compete have been taken away. Perhaps the USA Jobs Protection Act is as much a statement that Americans can do any job, as opposed to should do any job. Immigrants humble themselves to our country and seek the benefits, opportunities, and freedoms. When outsourcing struck the emotions of the middle class, white collar American worker, he understood emotions immigrants have known since first coming to America: helplessness and indifference to another culture’s ability to do the same job.
The promises made by outsourcing must not out pace the ability to maintain the dignity of workers, globally. Some questions still remain about how disruptive off shore outsourcing is to the U.S. economy. Is the slower upturn in our economic recovery foreshadowing the future? Immigration is skewing the balance of skilled-to-unskilled workers, yet the jobs needed to support those workers have not been created. The U.S. might be more globally integrated, labor wise, but does the amalgam of unemployed labor classes lessen our power to recoup, retrain, and win the next battle for job security?
If this ad hoc workforce is the way of the future, then the government must take a larger role as a surrogate, who’ll define the benefits for the individual and shore up some measure of job security. If not now, then soon, so we can move on and feel better about ourselves and our jobs. As for Ben, his patriotism feels good but it alone won’t pay the bills.
i. National Foundation for American Policy. 5 Aug. 2004. Summary List of States With Proposed Outsourcing Restrictions. http://www.nfap.net/researchactivities/globalsourcing/.
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